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Harvest for Restaurant Week




Restaurant Week has finally arrived! The girls and I headed to Harvest in Harvard Square on Sunday to kick off the festivities. The restaurant was located on "the walkway" right by Crate & Barrel, a bit hidden and out of the way, but easy enough to find.

The layout of the restaurant has a sort of windy way about it, as we were led to our table through a small area that resembled the kitchen. The dining room was quite lovely, very traditional and elegant, yet homey and comfortable. We were seated pretty close to a roaring fireplace too-lots of fireplaces these days apparently!

For the first time I was actually put together enough to bring a camera, so I can include photos of what I sampled-hooray! I started with a salad of mixed greens, walnuts, and a sort of ranch-type dressing. As you can see from the photo, it was beautifully arranged on the plate, with a swirl of the dressing on the right, and a pile of crisp greens on the left. The greens were quite bitter, but tasted very fresh, like they had just been, dare I say, harvest-ed? (That was bad... I apologize...) Skylar was the only one to try the garlic and watercress soup, which as you can see in the picture, was a vibrant shade of green, offset by a large crostini topped with smoked cod tartine. It was a unique soup, which I appreciated, and was light yet creamy.

For the next course I opted the salmon with beets and whipped Yukon potatoes. The beets turned the mashed potatoes a pepto-bismol pink, which I could have done without... and it was more of a dollop than a serving of them. The beets themselves though were great, as was the salmon, with a nice seared and crusted top and flaky and moist inside. Very delicate flavors, nothing overwhelming (or mind-blowing). Michelle was the only one to try the pork loin, which I took a bite of and was thoroughly impressed with-had an Asian flavor that was unique and very tasty.

Finally, I finished with the chocolate cake with espresso ice cream, which was nicely arranged (sorry no photo for this one, was too excited to eat it) and beautifully prepared. A tiny warm little cake with smooth ice cream with that kick of coffee flavor.

All in all, Harvest was a great first restaurant week choice-a place I would probably never go to on my own, but was delicious nonetheless. One of Harvest's claims to fame is its fresh and local ingredients, and this was definitely apparent in the food. Although it wasn't the most inventive or stunning cuisine, it definitely was food you did not feel guilty about consuming.

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